Hey y’all! I recently came into a bit of free time and want to use some of it to read something new. I love fantasy and am open to most genres but tend to lean more toward high fantasy, also really like adventure, epic fantasy, urban fantasy, heists, and historical fiction, among others. Not a huge fan of space so I haven’t really gotten into a lot of sci-fi like that, doesn’t capture my attention. Open to it if it’s not outer space or alien heavy but would honestly prefer something from the other genres.
I’m mostly looking for that feeling I get when immersing myself in a new and interesting world for the first time with new characters to be excited about. I love beautiful prose but if it’s not there it’s also not a dealbreaker as long as there are fleshed out characters and good world building. Would prefer it if the author is not weird about women, turns me off their writing pretty quickly. Also not afraid of a long book or a long series if it’s good!
Some books that I have loved and disliked:
Love:
The Count of Monte Cristo, The Gentleman Bastard series, The Secret History, the Kate Daniels series, The Inheritance Cycle and Murtagh, The Chronicles of Prydain, The Aurelian Cycle, Crazy Rich Asians series, Come Knocking, Daughter of Smoke and Bone series, a Certain Hunger
Were recommended to me and kept me more or less entertained but vaguely annoyed throughout:
Vita Nostra, ACOTAR, Throne of Glass series, Fourth Wing series, Six of Crows, Vicious, The Raven Cycle, The Atlas Six
Dislike:
The Stranger, The Book that Wouldn’t Burn, Lessons in Chemistry
by isabela2k19
6 Comments
Have you read The Great Library series by Rachel Caine. Great world and story line without some of the more common and annoying themes in the ones you mentioned annoyed you
The Tyrant Philosophers Series
Jade City trilogy by Fonda Lee has great world building and feels very immersive.
Anytning by NK Jemisin. She has several series that are all so distinct from each other. Fleshed out characters, immersive worlds, great writing. She’s most famous for her Broken Earth series, which is incredible. But I have a soft spot for the Inheritance trilogy which is about gods who rebelled against other gods and are now being punished and held captive by mortals devotees of the god who won.
I also love S.A. Chakraborty. Really liked the City of Brass series.
Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
Since you’ve enjoyed the Gentleman Bastards and The count of Monte Cristo, you might enjoy The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie. Dark, gritty, funny, character-driven fantasy. Filled with interesting, highly-flawed characters you’ll come to love despite (or maybe more so because of) their flaws, endlessly quotable with lots of dark humor and cynical wit, commentary on the human condition, choice, self awareness, etc. It’s a lot of fun, and the audiobooks are also top tier if you’re into that sort of thing, narrated by Steven Pacey. The first book is The Blade Itself, 10 books in total, all excellent. Book 4 is like a classic revenge/heist story set in a fantasy world, though definitely start at the beginning and read in publication order. The first trilogy is a little light on female characters (nothing problematic, just there aren’t a ton), but Abercrombie made a concerted effort to do better and from books 4 onwards the series is filled with tons of great women characters as well as men.
For a really unique, fast-paced, weird and wild sort of urban fantasy standalone novel, check out The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins.
You might also enjoy The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, a sort of Holmes/Watson murder mystery set against a strange and unique fantasy backdrop. Interesting characters and great world building.
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisen, and Malazan Book Of the Fallen, all have really great and unique worlds/world-building.
Poppy War is basically, what if a fantasy series was set in pre-modern China, instead of a medieval Europe analog.
Broken Earth is just very unique and well-done. To me, it exemplifies the concept of the Arthur C. Clark quote that, “Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic.” Great world building here too.
The only knock on the first 2 based on what you are looking for is that they are both trilogies. Malazan is 10 books and each runs about 1k pages. PHENOMENAL world-building and some new concepts I have never seen. Google K’chain Chemalle or Forkrul Assail to get an idea of some of the unique races Malazan has. Great series overall.